“Having a small bookstore of your own changes everything. “In the midst of its 6,000 book references and its imposing wooden shelves, Clara Da Silva is like a fish in water. After having founded a first boutique in the suburbs of Paris, the one who started out as a saleswoman at Fnac moved to Nantes to renew the adventure of business creation. A year and a half ago, this enthusiast of “small nuggets and old blankets” opened Marguerite House, its 55 m² independent generalist bookshop located in the Dalby district. “Here, we sell books but we provide advice, comfort and people, continues the forties. We use familiar terms, it’s warm, there’s this famous neighborhood life. »
This Saturday, some 500 stores in France, Switzerland and Belgium will celebrate this state of mind on the occasion of the 25th edition of the independent bookstore party. Animations will be offered in partner shops, while reading has come back to the forefront in recent years: so much so that 2022 is a record year in terms of setting up independent bookstores, according to the latest figures from the national book center (CNL). With 142 creations in France, the pace has actually doubled compared to the years prior to 2021. A phenomenon that is not reserved for large cities, with development in medium-sized cities.
Find the unexpected book
After 18 years as a social worker in the Paris region, it is more peaceful, in Châteaubriant (Loire-Atlantique), that Laure Bucamp settled down to open The list of my desires last April. The one who “loves books since childhood” saw potential in it when the only business that offered books, a press house, had closed its doors seven years ago. “People come to order, but also to find the book they weren’t expecting,” notes Laure Bucamp, who received financial support for her first months of installation. I have customers from the town and others who come from further afield, from Ille-et-Vilaine or Maine-et-Loire! We are above the forecast figure, even if I still have to manage to make myself known, in particular by developing animations. »
Because if independent booksellers have experienced a renewed interest during the Covid crisis, which has surely given rise to vocations and retraining, it is still a “shadow profession”. Protected by the law on the single price of the book, they must however convince readers that buying from them is not the same as on a platform. “Our bookstores are places where there is expertise, where we defend creation, and not just the ten bestsellers, launches Marie-Rose Guarnieri, president of the Verbes association and creator of the Independent Bookstore Festival. The value of a book is not only sales, it is also its content. This editorial diversity saves our democracy. »
This bookseller, who has been established for more than twenty years in the Abbesses district of Paris, obviously welcomes the recent resurgence of these businesses. “We have seen people for whom it is a second job, a less lucrative activity but which allows them to get rich in other ways. But this “demanding” profession is also strewn with pitfalls. In Nantes, Clara Da Silva has not yet managed to earn a salary and confides that it takes “a lot of energy” and not to be afraid of “working a lot”. According to the National Book Center, the pace of bookstore creations seems to be slowing down. “About fifty opening projects” have already been identified in 2023.